1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ceramic electronic component.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, ceramic electronic components typified by multilayer ceramic capacitors have been used under more inhospitable environments than ever before.
For example, electronic components for use in mobile devices such as cellular phones and portable music player are required to withstand dropping impacts. Specifically, the electronic components are required to keep from dropping from mounting boards and keep themselves from being cracked, when the electronic components are subjected to dropping impacts.
Furthermore, electronic components for use in in-car devices such as an ECU (Engine Control Unit) are required to withstand thermal cycle impacts. Specifically, the electronic components are required to keep solder used to mount the components and the components themselves from being cracked when the components are subjected to deflection stress generated by thermal expansion and contraction of the mounting boards due to thermal cycles.
In order to deal with these demands, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-162771 discloses a multilayer ceramic capacitor which includes external electrodes obtained by sequentially stacking a sintered electrode layer, a conductive resin layer including metal powder, a Ni plated layer, and a Sn plated layer.
The sintered electrode layer (sintered metal layer) is formed by baking a conductive paste applied to a laminated body. Shrinkage of a sintered metal powder included in the conductive paste concentrically generates residual stress on portions of the laminated body in contact with an end of the sintered metal layer. When the multilayer ceramic capacitor mounted on a circuit board is subjected to an external force, a combination of residual stress and external stress may be concentrically loaded on portions of the laminated body in contact with ends of the sintered metal layers of the external electrodes on the side opposed to the circuit board, thereby resulting in crack generation.
While the multilayer ceramic capacitor disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-162771 causes the epoxy-based thermosetting resin layer to absorb residual stress generated on the laminated body for the purpose of suppressing crack generation, there is room to be able to further suppress crack generation by reducing residual stress generated on portions of the laminated body on which a combination of residual stress and external stress is concentrically loaded.